For roughly four years, federal banking regulators ran what the House Financial Services Committee now formally calls "Operation Choke Point 2.0" — an informal pressure campaign that pushed banks to deny deposit accounts, payment rails, and correspondent relationships to crypto-adjacent businesses. No formal rulemaking, no due process: just pause letters, supervisory frowns, and the threat of heightened scrutiny for any bank that got too close to digital assets.
That machinery has been dismantled. The FDIC rescinded its prior-approval requirement with FIL-7-2025. The OCC issued Interpretive Letters 1179 and 1183 permitting custody, stablecoin reserves, and blockchain node services without pre-clearance. The Fed withdrew SR 22-6 and SR 23-8 and killed its Novel Activities Supervision Program. Critically, regulators also proposed removing "reputational risk" — the vague weapon most often used to justify debanking — from examination frameworks entirely.